70Q cooler...too big for 5 gallon batch?

[Boston85]

So a few months ago I saw a deal on Amazon for a cheap Coleman's extreme cooler, catch was it was 70 quarts..... I plan on doing 5 gallon batches, but I am afraid that my cooler is too big.... I know you don't want the grain to compact that much, but you also do not want it to be too thin.... Should I downgrade on the cooler and go with something more in the 40 quart range?

 

[janzik]

So a few months ago I saw a deal on Amazon for a cheap Coleman's extreme cooler, catch was it was 70 quarts..... I plan on doing 5 gallon batches, but I am afraid that my cooler is too big.... I know you don't want the grain to compact that much, but you also do not want it to be too thin.... Should I downgrade on the cooler and go with something more in the 40 quart range?

I use the Coleman 70qt for my 5 gallon batches and it works out just fine.

 

[motobrewer]

what about using one for real small beers (sub- 1.040's, bitters, milds, etc)

around 8.5 to 9 pounds of grain. does that still runoff fine?

 

[stevo155]

I've done a mild (1.036 ) in the same cooler with no problems.

 

[maida7]

I use that cooler but for larger 10 gallon brews.

For batch sparge you should be OK. But the grain bed will be way to shallow for a fly sparge.

Also, in any scenario your gonna have a ton of empty air space in there. All that air space will make heat loss a problem. I'm not saying it won't work but it's probably not ideal.

FYI you can get the 70 qt xtreme from walmart.com for under 40.00. And they ship it for free to your local store. just pick it up at the store.

 

[maida7]

I find the coleman 48 qt is a good size for 5 gallon batches. You can usualy find those for under 40.00. If you hunt around you can sometimes get them on sale for close to 20.00

But these retangulars are really only suited for batch sparging. If you fly sparge you should look for a tall narrow cooler like the round gott style with the false bottom.

 

[Hemsworth]

I use the 70 qt Extreme for 5 gallon batches. I've done small grain bills (7-8 lbs.) and only lost maybe 2 or 3 degrees over 60 minutes. With 10+ pounders I only seem to lose 1 degree.